Song of the Week

Within Temptation featuring Chris Jones, “Utopia”

Good morning! I hope you’re staying warm. It’s -4 Fahrenheit where I am right now, and I managed to get road salt in my phone’s charging port the other day. I’m not sure if it’s worth braving the windchill to go get it looked at.

There will be a new chapter of Journey to the Water on Patreon tomorrow, and last week’s chapter will be up here on Wednesday.

My friend and business partner Brooke and her Figuratively Speaking Tarot will be featured at the Wicked Wonderland Mini Art Market this Friday and Saturday in Milwaukee’s Third Ward! Here’s the Facebook event. I’m very excited and proud of her.

Thanks for stopping by! Have an excellent week.

Journey to the Water Chapter XLII: The Sorcerer’s Tower

Journey to the Water cover image: three evergreen trees stand on a hillside, shrouded in bluish fog. Subtitle reads: the sequel to Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea.

Table of Contents

The girl led me through the market, her trinkets ringing like tiny bells and catching the afternoon sunlight. She glittered from shoulder to wrist. She wore straw sandals with fraying edges, and her steps on the stone pavement whispered like wind through a stand of reeds, disappearing under the din of the market and the roar of the surf below the cliff. The smell of salt and fresh fish filled the air.

I had missed the sea. My persistent melancholy lightened, like a small weight removed from the heavy pack on my back, as the white sails bloomed like flowers on the far horizon and the sun touched the waves with gold. Perhaps I should not have gone to Nagara, and instead stayed with my companions on the Lady of Osona, making my way here by means of the trade winds. There was no guarantee that Captain Hamilcar would have brought me here any faster; he followed his own maps, and went where the call of treasure and adventure led him. 

Continue reading “Journey to the Water Chapter XLII: The Sorcerer’s Tower” →

New Patreon Post/ Journey to the Water Chapter XLIII

“The books are so old, their spines are weak, and things try to escape.”

Chapter XLIII: The Book-Collector

Eske has enlisted the help of a strange wizard and his stranger apprentice. You can read this chapter right now on Patreon.

Song of the Week

Fiona Apple, “I Know”

Good afternoon! I had an appointment this morning, so here’s all of this, starting with a song.

Journey to the Water continues this week: new chapter on Patreon tomorrow, and last week’s chapter will be up here on the blog on Wednesday. I’m also working on a new version of The Well Below the Valley, but I don’t have any news in that regard at the moment.

I hope you’re enjoying The Book of the New Moon Door! If you have a minute, be sure to leave a review on whatever platform you like best.

I guess this has turned into a space where I share petitions, so here’s another: ask the White House to stop supplying white phosphorus weapons to Israel

I think that’s all for today. I appreciate you, and assure you that all my content is created without the use of AI. Whether it uses any regular intelligence is a different matter entirely.

Journey to the Water Chapter XLI: The City on the Cliffs

Journey to the Water cover image: three evergreen trees stand on a hillside, shrouded in bluish fog. Subtitle reads: the sequel to Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea.

Table of Contents

I left the tiny commune around Isra’s well, and I left the serene face of the goddess, and I wandered across the desert to the lands of the West. Somewhere beyond the northern horizon lay the lands of my people, where our gods walked the plains of endless ice in pursuit of the great beasts that ever eluded them, and my dragon-headed ship lay beneath water cold and dark as death. My journey would not lead me back there. I had to press forward. 

Once, my friend Aysulu had told me of the gods of the West. There were seven of them, she had said, like the seven Ascended of Phyreios, though they moved between faith and legend and metaphor and not in the streets of their cities. Isra was one of them. Like her, the others had wind-scarred faces and the faded implements of their stations held in their stone hands: a shepherd’s crook, a set of balancing scales, a scepter, a smith’s hammer. They towered over the dunes, their eyes long since etched away, the human hands who carved their figures buried beneath centuries of sand. At their feet, the remains of their temples crumbled into dust. 

Continue reading “Journey to the Water Chapter XLI: The City on the Cliffs” →

New Patreon Post/ Journey to the Water Chapter XLII

“When can I see the all-knowing one? Is he above?” I frowned and studied the small, brown face again. “Or are you the all-knowing one, and this is but a test I must pass?”

Chapter XLII: The Sorcerer’s Tower

Eske meets a wizard, but there’s more going on here than meets the eye. You can read this chapter right now on Patreon.

Song of the Week

Queens of the Stone Age, “My God Is the Sun”

Happy New Year!

I’ll have a new chapter of Journey to the Water on Patreon tomorrow, and last week’s chapter will be up here on Wednesday. This will be the posting schedule until further notice. Right now, I’m writing them only slightly ahead of when I’m making them available, but I hope to build up a backlog over the next couple of months.

I’ll also be working on The Well Below the Valley a bit this week. In case you’ve missed it, this is a historical, Lovecraftian horror audio drama based on my module for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game system (you can find the tabletop version under the Modules tab above/under the Menu). Let me know in the comments if you are interested in reading the script or would prefer to listen to the eventual audio version without spoilers.

Over on Instagram, I’m doing at-least-weekly, casual one-card readings with a gigantic, mixed-up monster Tarot deck, if that’s something that interests you.

If you have a minute, I’d appreciate you signing this petition: no US weapons for war crimes

The Book of the New Moon Door: Book Club Discussion Questions

I hope these will help any book club, reading groups, or other nerdy conversations! They are spoiler-free. If you have any other suggestions, or questions you’d like to ask me directly, please leave a comment and I’d be happy to answer them or add to the list.

  1. The story is told from two perspectives: Berend and Isabel. Which point of view did you prefer? Which gave you more insight into the world and the story? Would you have liked to see another character’s perspective?
  2. Which scene stuck with you the most and why?
  3. What do you think happens after the end? Was the ending satisfying, or did you want to see something different?
  4. What are the book’s main themes? Does the author take a stance on any of them(e.g., the value of religious devotion)? Do you agree with that stance?
  5. Are there any unanswered questions or unresolved issues that you wish the author had addressed?

Here’s a PDF version with space for notes:

new-moon-door-discussion-questionsDownload

Some groups like to have themed food and drinks, so here are a couple of harvest squash soup recipes I rounded up:

Butternut Squash Soup by Love & Lemons (vegan)
Copycat Panera Squash Soup by Rachel Cooks (vegetarian)

And here are some cocktails. I don’t drink, so one of you is going to have to volunteer to try them and report back!

Apple Cinnamon Whiskey Smash by Hunger Thirst Play
Smoking Blackberry Sage Margarita by Wicked Spatula

Happy reading!

Year in Review, Part the Second

This year has been rough, and I’m ready to put it behind me. Let’s focus on the positive:

  • I went to FOUR markets this year and met a lot of cool people!
  • The Book of the New Moon Door is finally published! As of this writing, it has sold 34 copies, most of them preorders.
  • Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea sold an additional 49 copies this year, which brings the total number of copies sold to 146. Two of them were purchased in Germany!
  • I worked on Journey to the Water and The Well Below the Valley, though I had to put both on hiatus while I finished New Moon Door.
  • Our garden did very well! I was happy to share some photos after planting.
  • I also released a short story, “The Howler.”

I had to put a lot of my other goals from last year on hold, but I hope to pick back up next year:

  • I want to finish, edit, and publish Journey to the Water.
  • I will revisit the script for The Well Below the Valley and start making it into something that might actually, eventually, be good, and hopefully finish it as well.
  • Over the next month or so, I’ll be rolling out some changes to my Patreon and Ko-fi, to better reward people who want to support me directly.
  • I’ll return to The Tarot of the Gates and work out a timeline for its eventual completion. I haven’t decided if it will involve serial chapters or if I’ll keep it under wraps. It’s also a collaboration with an artist, so her schedule and availability will have an impact.
  • I’ll be going to more markets and events, so be sure to stay tuned for those!
  • I want to do some video content (Twitch or YouTube) and have more nonfiction posts here, like discussion questions, talking about writing, that sort of thing. Maybe some more short stories, as well.
  • I might not get to a new manuscript this year (other than Journey to the Water), but my long-term goal is to be a hybrid author with both independent and traditionally-published books.
  • More garden pictures!

I’m more grateful than words can say for you, reader. You make all this worthwhile. May the new year bring you peace and happiness.

Journey to the Water Chapter XL: Isra’s Well

Journey to the Water cover image: three evergreen trees stand on a hillside, shrouded in bluish fog. Subtitle reads: the sequel to Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea.

Table of Contents

This small community of green-robed women had been constructed around a deep well. The underground spring, they told me, belonged to the goddess Isra herself, and it was her will that the water be given to any who asked for it. It also irrigated an expansive garden of small, hardy vegetables and a date palm on either side of the chapel. No matter how much I stared at the garden, it stubbornly remained, its thin yellow-green leaves trembling in the harsh desert wind. This was no illusion. Already this goddess stood higher in my esteem than the serpent god of Svilsara. 

Continue reading “Journey to the Water Chapter XL: Isra’s Well” →